NEW YORK CITY—As disputes over the legal status of cannabis and its sale continue, New York City businesses that sell or seek to sell it gained a modest victory on Oct. 29 when a judge ruled that Operation Padlock to Protect, a statute that gave police broad scope to close down such businesses, violated their right to due process.
In his decision, New York State Supreme Court Judge Kevin Kerrigan ruled in favor of Cloud Corner, a store located on Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens, finding due process violations in the administrative hearings in which representatives for the store challenged its closure….